Monsters among us.

This is sad little story. It involves monsters, murder, authority, education, and stupidity, but it does not belong on "The Warpath" because there is nothing and no one to go on the war path against.

Last Thursday, near my hometown, a nine-year-old little girl disappeared on her way from her friend's home a few hundred yards to her own home. Law enforcement, firefighters, and neighbors came to search the woods nearby and a roadblock was set up. Dozens more people who came to help were turned away because there was nothing for them to help with. In short order, the neighbors and passersby were interrogated in the vain hope of finding a clue. A day passed, then another.

Saturday evening, the case was broken but details did not begin to trickle out until Monday. A teenaged neighbor had shown law enforcement officers where the body was buried. The neighbor then confessed and was taken into custody. There was no mysterious stranger in a dark sedan to run down, just another kid with no life left.

Just flew in from the east coast.....

...and boy, are my arms tired. (Apologies to every real comedian who made that joke funny.)

Glad to be home.

I habb a code. By dose weighs tweddy pouds.

This sort of thing happens every once in a while. Some of these events are just allergies but the worst of them are head colds, and I have one. Right now I have one. A head cold. My normally large nose feels truly gargantuan tonight. It's the middle of the night and my decongestants aren't working well enough to let me sleep.

A "big doze" is no fun, it just makes your head feel off-balance. I have to concentrate like the blonde looking intently at the frozen orange juice carton, I have to really concentrate, to figure out how many hours to allow between doses of decongestant and again to remember when I took the last dose. Eh, let's see. Nine-thirty to one-thirty; four hours - I am good to go with another dose...ok, so allowing half an hour for the stuff to start working...ehhh....maybe I can go back to bed at two.

If this all works out, then here I am.